Judging by the copyright claiming Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, I find it suffice to say I do not own Naruto.
Sasuke watched his brother from one of the chairs occupying the living room as he argued in a hushed tone on his mobile phone. The wolf-like ears atop his head flattened and his tail flicked back and forth angrily before he ended the call and made for the door leading out of the house.
Sasuke followed him, worried. It was almost 9PM, where on earth was his brother going at this time of night? Itachi was acting in a very unsettling manner recently. After their parents died he'd joined some weird gang and gotten into heaps of trouble, but that seemed to have died down somewhat. Until a few weeks ago. Itachi had been leaving the house for days at a time for some reason. Not to mention the mystery phone calls.
"Ita-" Sasuke was ignored but for the slam of the door. He sighed, and turned back to the living room.
He would just have to wait for his brother to come back to confront him.
'He's lucky Madara had a late shift at the hospital otherwise there would have been a riot' Sasuke thought to himself as he settled down in his chair again and flicked through the channels, intent on staying awake till his brother returned.
He did not manage this.
When Sasuke awoke, he found himself in his own bed instead of the living room. He came to the conclusion that his uncle must have moved him, since Itachi didn't seem to be bothered about him all that much nowadays. He briefly wondered if his brother was home when he heard muffled voices coming from his brother's room. It was right next to his, and the wall wasn't very thick, so he pressed his ear against the wallpaper and listened. It was muffled, but he could pick up some of the conversation.
He was surprised to hear a mention of his brother's old gang, Akatsuki, but even more surprised to hear a girls voice. In all the years he had know his brother (which was his entire life) he had never seen him as much as glance at a girl. Now he has one in his room?
"Stop it!"
Wow. Whoever she was, this girl had guts. Even Madara was scared of Itachi when he was pissed off (he wasn't even going to begin talking about his Cousin), but this girl had no qualms about giving it to him straight. He had to admire her courage; he could tell even muffled that Itachi was severely agitated.
"Will you calm down and let me-"
"No! Let go of me!"
The voice could clearly be heard. Sasuke heard the sounds of footsteps and hurried to his own bedroom door, once again concerned. When he opened it and turned his head towards the doorway to Itachi's room he received another surprise.
A girl his age was standing in the hallway. She was barefoot, but he could see trainers and socks on the ground at her feet. She was wearing what were obviously his brothers jeans, since they were far too baggy around the waist to be her own, and was in the process of pulling on he own chequered shirt. Sasuke thanked the gods it was dark, for he felt himself blushing at sight of what looked like her orange bra. Kiba would never let him live this down if he found out; unlike his perverted friend, he was not a regular of the porn section in the newsagents. How Kiba even bought those magazines was a mystery considering he, like himself, was still fourteen.
He waited until the girl finished closing her shirt before peeking around the door once again. She looked familiar; blonde hair in pigtails reaching just past her shoulders and whisker marks on her cheeks. He couldn't tell what her eye colour was from the distance and darkness. After pulling on her socks and trainers, she moved swiftly down the hall. Sasuke pulled back into his room to avoid being spotted spying as she passed his room. It was at this point, upon getting a better look at her face, that he recognised her.
Naruto Namikaze; she was one of the girls in his class. He knew her since she was friends with pretty much the entire class - she was actually in most of his classes, and they were bench-mates in chemistry. She was one of the few (Re: almost non-existent) girls who didn't swoon at the sight of him, even going so far as to routinely kick his ass in the Karate club (much to his eternal frustration).
'No wonder she isn't scared of Itachi' he thought to himself as she walked towards the door. He poked his head around the door further still and watched her leave. As she closed the door behind her he noticed two things that were distinctly out of the ordinary.
One: She wore a face that was a vision of hell itself.
Two: She lacked the fox ears and tail that had been poking out earlier that day.
Sasuke surmised the morning wasn't going to be a good one.
Especialy not for Itachi.
- - - - - - - - -
Kyuubi glared at the eggs that had been shovelled on top of his toast by his mother.
"Mum, why are you giving me eggs? I hate eggs!" he grumbled pushing the fried globs of mucus of his toast, being careful to avoid splitting the yolks. No way was he getting mucus-glop-goop all over his toast.
"Kyuubi, just eat the eggs" Minato told his son half-heartedly, flicking boredly through a newspaper. He picked up a cup of coffee as he flicked to the sports section to check the rugby scores. His wife joined them, chuckling at their antics. It was some moments before Kushina spoke.
"Where's Naruto? She's normally up by now. She has karate practice this morning…" she said, looking around for her tomboy daughter. Minato and Kyuubi looked around and noticed for the first time the lack of the youngest (and noisiest) member of the family.
"I'll go get her…" Kyuubi sighed in a resigned manner. This was more aimed at his sister's laziness than the interruption of his so-called-breakfast however. He traipsed up the stairs and walked down a hall to a bright orange door, decorated with signs promising pain, dismemberment, castration, impalement, and other forms of bodily harm should one enter unless invited.
He rapped on the door loudly.
"Oi brat, get your ass out of bed! You're late for Karate!" he yelled. He paused, waiting for the usual protesting and panicking that did not come. Puzzled, he rapped on the door again, louder this time.
"Naruto! Up and at 'em!" he shouted.
There was still no answer. Officially worried he decided, at risk of his own safety, to enter the room. This was no mean feat since his sister's promises of pain that adorned her door were not unfounded. She was very close to black belt level, if not already. She also had strict rules concerning privacy that were not to be taken lightly. Upon entering the room he froze. Everything was in exactly the same place as it had been the day before when Naruto had dragged him in to help her with her German homework. Her schoolbooks, computer, frog-spawn/toad tank, collection of battered manga books, Karate Gi, everything was in its rightful place.
What Kyuubi found so disconcerting was the image of a bed that had no been slept in, and the absence of his younger sister. He blinked to make sure he was not dreaming before running back down the stairs as if his non-existent tail had caught fire. His parents stared at him as he ran back into the kitchen with a panicked look across his face.
"What's wrong with you?" his father asked, raising an eyebrow over the top of his paper. His mother eyed him with a look of concern.
"Naruto's not in her room! I don't think she came home last night!" he stated bluntly. Kyuubi never did believe in sugar-coating things. Kushina dropped the plate she had been holding and it crashed to the floor, shattering.
"W-What? Then where is she?" she asked, an un-natural panic edging into her voice.
Minato raised an eyebrow at this behind his newspaper. Why would his wife be panicking so much? Naruto often stayed out at her friends' homes. It was the only way she could keep up with them all. Besides, Naruto was pretty much a black-belt; she could more than defend herself in any case of trouble. Though not many people would be stupid enough to try anything with her, Kumo wasn't that big of a town and Naruto was well known thanks to that incident with Mizuki. No-one had given reason to get on her bad side since.
There was no reason to be so worried.
Unless… Kushina knew something he didn't?
"If I knew, I would not be standing here mum!" Kyuubi replied irritably.
Kyuubi was a different matter entirely. He was not very good at controlling his anger - he'd even been to a psychologist to get some help for it - and he had, in a manner of speaking, a sister complex. Kyuubi was a very devoted older brother. He was no pushover, Kyuubi refused to give in to the pouts he and his wife always fell for, and only acted in what he perceived to be in Naruto's best interests. This included a healthy dose of worrying whenever she stayed with a friend (Kyuubi was definitely a worry-wart). Combine this with anger-management issues and the problem was clear.
Minato sensed the panic in his wife and his eldest child was not going to do anyone any good and decided it would be best to intervene sooner rather than later.
"Calm down Kyuubi" he spoke sharply to his eldest. "Go try ringing her mobile her mobile. Kushina, you try the Haruno's. I'll ring the Yamanaka's, she may have stayed with Sakura or Ino and just forgotten to tell us" he reasoned. While he was worried himself, he saw no point in panicking when there may be no reason to do so.
His wife and son both found this to be a reasonable suggestion, and calmed down somewhat before doing as instructed. Kyuubi paced back and forth on his mobile waiting for his sister to miraculously pick up as Kushina spoke to Mr Haruno on the landline. Minato fished his own mobile out of his pocket and flicked down the list of contacts to Inochi's number. The phone rang for barley a moment before it was answered.
"Minato, is that you?" he asked, sounding somewhat highly strung.
"Yes, listen, Naruto didn't come home las-"
"Oh, thank god you called! I had no idea whether to call or not!"
"Is Naruto with you?" Minato asked, a pinch of worry tainting his voce as he noted his friends alarm.
"Yes, listen, I think you should get over here Minato. I was watching one the James bond films with Ino when she turned up on the doorstep at about 2AM! She's an absolute mess, she's holed herself up with Ino and I have no idea what's going on since Ino locked me out" the man grumbled but the wary tone in his voice alerted Minato to something much more serious.
"What? Why? Is she alright?" Minato made no effort to hide the panic in his voice. If Inochi was so off-centre than it was safe to assume something not-so-pleasant had occurred.
"…just get your ass over here quick Minato. You'll see what I mean when you see for yourself"
"See for myself? What are you talking abou-"
Minato glared at the phone after Inochi hung up.
"Minato, what happened?" his wife asked, laying a hand on his arm. He looked at his wife seeing the concern for both himself and Naruto on her face.
"I don't know, Inochi wouldn't say. He seemed pretty shaken up though…" he trailed off. He snapped back to the task at hand and grabbed his car keys off the table and headed out the door.
- - - - - - - - - -
Sasuke slumped down at the breakfast table feeling what he assumed would be similar to a hangover. He wasn't completely sure having never had a hangover before, but he assumed the feelings of wanting to crawl under his duvet and sleep for eternity were similar. He'd had almost no sleep thanks to some weird dream involving his chemistry partner.
Madara was telling him and his younger cousin, Tobi, about his eldest son (Oibito) who was working in the Galapagos Islands. Something about sea turtles. Tobi found this enthralling. Sasuke could care less if Oibito was making sharks fin soup for orang-utans. He was about to tell the man to shut up (he really was very irritable) when his uncle took the idea of speech from his mouth.
"Well, I wasn't expecting this when I came home last night"
Sasuke pulled his head off the table and turned in his seat, wondering what had his normally stoic uncle so surprised, to feel the blood drain from his already pale face. Itachi stood at the counter pouring himself a bowl of cereal as if it were the most normal thing in the world. This would be the case on most mornings were it not for the absence of his ears and tail.
"I'm eighteen Uncle Madara, almost nineteen" Itachi said quietly, taking his seat beside Sasuke (who was still staring at his brother as if he was missing a limb) and attacking his cereal.
"True, but you aren't exactly the social type Itachi. Last I checked, you were scaring both girls and boys away deliberately" Madara dug for further information eagerly. Once interested, the man could be an absolute gossip whore. It was actually rather scary at times.
"Also true, but my love life isn't something of your concern Uncle" Itachi replied just as quietly. Madara found this amusing (if the light smirk was anything to go by), but stopped digging for information from his nephew. Sasuke hadn't touched his own breakfast since his brother had appeared at the table. He hadn't been dreaming. His brother had had sex with his classmate. His chemistry partner. His Karate rival.
That was unsettling for a variety of reasons. One being Naruto was his classmate, it was just weird. Another was the fact that should this be discovered, his brother could be charged with rape since Naruto was distinctly not the legal age required for such acts. He had no doubt Naruto's father and brother would hit the roof when they saw Naruto walking earless to the breakfast table.
This led him to his third reason for discomfort; Naruto had not been happy when she left. In fact, she'd looked ready to kill something. Was it possible that…? Sasuke was positive this was not the case. His brother had been to juvie for a few weeks after one expedition during his time in Akatsuki, but that had been for stealing. He was fairly positive Itachi was no rapist. The very idea was preposterous.
Whatever the reason, Sasuke found himself wanting to rip his brother's head of for the first time in his life. He abruptly pushed his chair back and punched his elder sibling as hard as he could on the nose. He felt a cracking noise as blood spurted from his brother's nose; it was at the very least fractured.
"Bastard" he hissed before walking top the hallway. He picked up his rucksack and jacket, before walking out of the house and slamming the door behind him.
"This morning's just full of surprises isn't it?" Madara asked rhetorically, pressing an ice pack to the nose of his now de-virginized nephew.
Tobi laughed as Itachi hissed from the pain.
- - - - - - - - - -
Minato had barley knocked on the door when Inochi opened it. One look at his friend told him whatever his daughter had gotten herself into this time was nothing good.
"You'll have to be very persuasive Minato. She won't come out of Ino's room, and Ino wont let us in. I swear I heard furniture moving a few minuets ago" Inochi informed him, a worried frown on his face as they mounted the stairs. They stopped outside the door to Ino's room and Inochi knocked on the door.
"Ino, Naruto, open up!"
"Go away Dad! You're just making things worse!" Ino yelled angrily from the other side of the door.
Inochi sighed and pulled at his long hair in frustration before trying again.
"Naruto, your dad's here honey"
There was silence for a long time. Eventually Minato broke it. "Naruto, come on out, your mother's probably cleaning by now" he stated, knowing full well this was very likely to be true. He'd seen his wife grabbing a bottle of bathroom beach from the cleaning cupboard before walking out the door. Kushina only cleaned when she was worried, sad or angry.
"Dad! I said don't call them you idiot!" Ino yelled again.
"I didn't! Minato phoned me!" Inochi left out the fact that had his friend not phoned when he had, he would have phoned him anyway.
"Naruto, come on out, I'm not mad okay? Were just worried, Kyuubi was about to call the neighbourhood watch when he didn't find you snoring this morning" Minato was, by now, very worried. Naruto was bold, brash and anything but afraid. She beat up boys several years her senior on a regular basis for heavens sake.
What on earth made her hide in Ino's bedroom?
"We don't have a neighbourhood watch dad" came a low, mumbled, female voice Minato recognised as his daughter's.
"You know what I mean, now are you going top come on out? I won't get mad, promise"
He heard a snort form Ino. Apparently Naruto glared at her if her next sentence was anything to go by.
"What? You're thinking the same thing!"
"Yeah, but I didn't snort piggy"
"Shut up!"
There was a snicker and the sound of feet moving across the floor, followed by a heavy scraping sound. Inochi gave Minato a look that said 'I told you they moved the furniture!'
"Naruto, are you sure you want to go out yet? You can stay a while longer… it's not like, I mean…" Ino's voce permeated through the door worriedly. Minato had to strain to hear her voice.
"I can't hide in here forever Ino" Naruto replied in a somewhat resigned tone of voice. "Though the idea does seem appealing, Kyuubi's going to go ape-shit crazy…" Naruto grumbled at the idea. Minato could sympathise with that to a certain degree.
"And your dad isn't?!" Ino hissed barley loud enough for them to hear.
Minato didn't like all the worry he could hear coming from Ino. Ino was like Inochi - she didn't worry about much.
"Well duh, but not like Kyuubi! Kyuubi'll go on a homicide spree if he…" Minato didn't hear the rest of the sentence. They were taking care not to be overheard. They were so absorbed in trying to overhear, he almost didn't hear his daughter talking to him from the other side of the door.
"Dad, my crazy moment is over, and I'm coming out. I want you to promise that if you freak out-"
"-You mean when he freaks out-"
"-Shut up Ino! If you freak out, promise you won't actually freak out until we get home so you can freak out with everyone else and save time on the freaking out"
Despite the confusion, Minato promised his daughter he would not freak out until they got home. There was a pause before there was another scraping of furniture, and the unlocking of what sounded like three different locks being unlocked. Apparently Naruto had influenced Ino somewhat. The door opened and Ino stepped out looking like she strongly disagreed with her friends actions from the way her fluffy ears and tail twitched. Inochi seemed to be sweating a little bit.
The door opened again, wider this time and he heard an intake of breath before Naruto stepped out. Minato stared at his daughter for a moment, seeing noting wrong until his eyes landed on here ears; or rather, the spot where they should have been. He suddenly felt a lot of different emotions. The desire to kill something was definitely noticeable. Also was the desire to freak out, but he had promised this would not occur till they were both back at the house.
Naruto looked like she wanted to run back into Ino's room, but she did not. Instead she thanked Inochi for letting her stay and hugged Ino, mumbling something inaudible to her, before tugging his sleeve.
"Dad, can we go home now?" she asked.
Minato stared at her. Since when did she ask to be taken home? The question told him just how shaken up she was and he felt the worry magnify. What on earth had happened to her? Was this something of her own volition or… was it not? He hoped it was consensual, but judging from her pale colour even if it was it likely had not ended well. In a way, that was probably even worse.
She seemed to be shaking. Dear lord, how many firsts was he supposed to deal with in one day? Naruto was right; Kyuubi would go homicidal on the guy who had completely destroyed his daughter's confidence to such an extent. He almost felt sorry for him.
Almost. He felt there would be a certain justification in his son's actions (and there would be actions taken, of this he was certain).
Pretending to pass off the shaking as the cold, he pulled off his coat and pulled it around the blonde girl's shoulders, making a show of the action. He gave Inochi a glance conveying silent gratitude as he followed his daughter out of the door.
- - - - - - - - - -
Sasuke glared at his brother as his elder sibling blocked his pathway out of the house.
"What?" he asked, making no move to even be polite. He did the opposite, making his distaste for his brother very clear.
Itachi visibly flinched and Sasuke felt a small victory.
"You've been avoiding me" Itachi stated. Sasuke snorted.
Wasn't Itachi supposed to be one of those prodigies? The standards must be slipping if it had taken him this long to notice.
"You don't say?" he retorted.
"Care to tell me why?" Itachi asked.
Sasuke glanced at his face and saw genuine confusion. He thought for a moment before deciding his brother should at least know why he was avoiding him so much. He hadn't exactly left any clues for him. Sasuke gave his brother a levelled gaze filled with contempt.
"Care to tell me where Naruto's ears went?" he asked sardonically. Itachi's eyes widened slightly before Sasuke let loose.
"She's my fucking classmate Itachi! What the hell did you do to her?! No-ones seen neither hide nor hair of her and her family for two weeks! Not since she left your room you sick bastard!"
Alright the last bit was a lie; Ino had mentioned her staying the night and being completely out of it. It was not public knowledge she had been with his brother either - though Ino probably knew something. That was not the point however; the point was that she had vanished off the face of the earth. Sasuke ignored his brother's wide eyed stare and pushed past him, heading for the door.
Madara raised an eyebrow as he slammed the door behind him. He turned to the stunned Itachi and gave him a blank look.
"What was that about Minato's daughter, Itachi?" he asked in a quiet voice.
Itachi gulped.
- - - - - - - - - -
Please don't ask where this came from because I have no idea. I was half-way through washing my hair when it popped into my head out of nowhere. I have no idea what prompted this. I had eaten a lot of cheese that day so maybe that had an influence on my brain…
Whatev. Here. Read. Enjoy.
Reviews please *Puppy-Dog Eyes*
Natariixxx
